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Grosgrain Archives

July 8, 2012

Back when I subscribed to Cottage Living Magazine I saw this fantastic idea of painting faux brick. The woman had painted her concrete driveway and from the pictures it looked nice. So I used this technique on my previous home's concrete porch. At first, the neighbors said I was crazy, but conceded that afterward it looked like an improvement. I was a bit skeptical as I was doing it but in the end I was pleased too. It cost a fraction of what it would have been to add brick pavers. Sadly, I couldn't find a single picture of work in my old photo files but you can see the ones from Cottage Living and a tutorial below.

I couldn't find the old article on the Cottage Living website but here's the instructions from the magazine. If you look close you can see the path she painted in the picture below.

1) Claudia Darr used 1 gallon of Benjamin Moore's MoorGard Low Lustre Latex House Paint (#103-4B) in the following forumla (the paint dealer will know what this means):OY 1x8, RX 5x, BK 1x22, MA 3x, WH1x16, TG 18 (I used this mix and it looked too red. I went back and just picked a brick color and it turned out much better).

2) Clean the area you plan to paint, and let it dry thoroughly

3) Beginning in a corner, use a 4 inch roller to paing " bricks". Make each one about 7 inches long, leaving about 3/4 inch between each brick (to simulate grout line). Stagger adjoining rows so bricks form a wall pattern.